Becoming Mexipino

Multiethnic Identities and Communities in San Diego

Rudy P. Guevarra Jr.

Publication Year: 2012

Becoming Mexipino is a social-historical interpretation of two ethnic groups, one Mexican, the other Filipino, whose paths led both groups to San Diego, California. Rudy Guevarra traces the earliest interactions of both groups with Spanish colonialism to illustrate how these historical ties and cultural bonds laid the foundation for what would become close interethnic relationships and communities in twentieth-century San Diego as well as in other locales throughout California and the Pacific West Coast.Through racially restrictive covenants and other forms of discrimination, both groups, regardless of their differences, were confined to segregated living spaces along with African Americans, other Asian groups, and a few European immigrant clusters. Within these urban multiracial spaces, Mexicans and Filipinos coalesced to build a world of their own through family and kin networks, shared cultural practices, social organizations, and music and other forms of entertainment. They occupied the same living spaces, attended the same Catholic churches, and worked together creating labor cultures that reinforced their ties, often fostering marriages. Mexipino children, living simultaneously in two cultures, have forged a new identity for themselves. Their lives are the lens through which these two communities are examined, revealing the ways in which Mexicans and Filipinos interacted over generations to produce this distinct and instructive multiethnic experience. Using archival sources, oral histories, newspapers, and personal collections and photographs, Guevarra defines the niche that this particular group carved out for itself.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

I can honestly say this project began the day I was born. As a child, I never fully
understood what my experience as a Mexipino meant, other than being
instilled with a sense of pride for both my cultures. I grew up eating both
Mexican and Filipino food and observed the interactions of my relatives at...

Introduction: Mexicans, Filipinos, and
the Mexipino Experience

On March 15, 2008, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Marquez squared off for the
WBC Super Featherweight Championship of the world. The fight was held at the
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight between
Filipino boxer Pacquiao...

1. Immigration to a Rising Metropolis

When Jesus “Chuey” Garcia came to the United States in 1927 from Guanajuato,
Mexico, he ended up working as a cook for twenty-five cents an hour at an El
Paso restaurant. From there, he migrated to San Diego, where he worked picking
tomatoes and celery for fifteen...

2. The Devil Comes to San Diego: Race and Spatial Politics

In 1928, Filipino writer (and later World War II veteran) Manuel Buaken came
to the United States to seek an education and make a place for himself in his
newly adopted country. Upon his arrival, he obtained a job working at a Los
Angeles restaurant. However, when he sought housing...

In San Diego during the twentieth century, racial segregation and the specter of
discrimination facilitated the need for Mexicans and Filipinos to turn inward
and build their own social worlds within larger multiracial spaces. Within these
spaces Mexicans and Filipinos...

4. Race and Labor Activism in San Diego

In 1936, Mexican and Filipino celery workers in Chula Vista, the southern area of
San Diego County, struck against the Chula Vista Vegetable Exchange. Although
functioning as separate ethnic unions, the Mexican Union of Laborers, the Filipino
Labor Union, and the Field...

5. Filipino-Mexican Couples and the Forging of a Mexipino Identity

When Felipa Castro met Ciriaco “Pablo” Poscablo in San Diego, little did she
know the impact their marriage would have on their family for generations to
come. Born and raised in Baja California, Mexico, Felipa migrated with her
family to Tijuana, then made her way north...

Epilogue

Since 1965, the Filipino and Mexican communities have undergone a series of
demographic, geographic, and economic changes. The 1965 Immigration Act,
for example, abolished all national origins quotas, allowing for increased immigration
of both Filipinos and...

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